Gender and Sexuality

Students may complete a minor or concentration in Gender and Sexuality. Students may submit an application to major in Gender and Sexuality through the independent major program.

Steering Committee

Bryn Mawr College

Grace Armstrong, Chair and Eunice M. Schenck 1907 Professor of French, Director of Middle Eastern Languages, and Co-Director of International Studies
Linda-Susan Beard, Associate Professor of English
Jody Cohen, Term Professor in the Bryn Mawr/Haverford Education Program
Catherine Conybeare, Professor of Greek, Latin and Classical Studies and Director of the Graduate Group
Anne Dalke, Term Professor of English
Gregory Davis, Assistant Professor of Biology
Richard Davis, Professor of Anthropology
Radcliffe Edmonds, Chair and Associate Professor of Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies
Marissa Golden, Associate Professor of Political Science on the Joan Coward Chair in Political Economics
Jennifer Harford Vargas, Assistant Professor of English
Deborah Harrold, Lecturer in Political Science and Director of the Middle East Studies Program
Jane K. Hedley, Laurence Stapleton Professor of English
David Karen, Chair and Professor of Sociology
Philip Kilbride, Professor of Anthropology
Christine Koggel, Harvey Wexler Chair in Philosophy, Chair of the Philosophy Department, and Co-Director of International Studies
Steven Levine, Chair and Professor of History of Art on the Leslie Clark Professorship in the Humanities
Astrid Lindenlauf, Assistant Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology
Gridley McKim-Smith, Professor of History of Art on the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Professorship in the Humanities
Hoang Nguyen, Assistant Professor of English and Film Studies
Mary Osirim, Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Sociology
Roya Rastegar, Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Humanities
Jennifer Redmond, CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Academic Libraries
Roberta Ricci, Chair and Associate Professor of Italian and Director of Film Studies
Stephen Salkever, Mary Katharine Woodworth Professor of Political Science
Heidi Schlipphacke, Visiting Associate Professor of German and German Studies
Sanford Schram, Visiting Professor of Social Work
Ellen Stroud, Associate Professor of Growth and Structure of Cities on the Johanna Alderfer Harris and William H. Harris, M.D., Professorship in Environmental Studies, and Director of Environmental Studies
Barb Toews, Instructor in Social WorkSharon Ullman, Professor of History and Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies

The Program in Gender and Sexuality is an interdisciplinary, Bi-College program that can be integrated with any major or pursued independently. Students graduate from the program with a high level of fluency and rigor in their understanding of the different ways issues of gender and sexuality shape our lives as individuals and as members of larger communities, both local and global.

Students choosing a concentration, minor or independent major in gender and sexuality plan their programs in consultation with the Gender and Sexuality coordinator on their home campus. Members of the Gender and Sexuality steering committee serve as their individual mentors. All students in the program take the core course, “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Sex and Gender.” Other courses in the program allow them to explore a range of approaches to gender and sexual difference: critical feminist theory; women’s studies; transnational and third-world feminisms; the experiences of women of color; gender and science; the construction of masculinity; gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, and transsexual studies; the history and representation of gender and sexuality in Western and non-Western cultures.

Minor and Concentration Requirements

Six courses distributed as follows are required for the concentration:

An introductory course (including equivalent offerings at Swarthmore College or the University of Pennsylvania).

Four additional approved courses from at least two different departments, two of which are normally at the 300 level. Units of Independent Study (480) may be used to fulfill this requirement.

Of the six courses, no fewer than two and no more than three will also form part of the student’s major.

Requirements for the minor are identical to those for the concentration, with the stipulation that no courses in gender and sexuality will overlap with courses taken to fulfill requirements in the student’s major.

Neither a senior seminar nor a senior thesis is required for the concentration or minor; however, with the permission of the major department, a student may choose to count toward the concentration a senior thesis with significant content in gender and sexuality. Students wishing to construct an independent major in gender and sexuality should make a proposal to the Committee on Independent Majors.

An introduction to the place of humans in nature, primates, the fossil record for human evolution, human variation and the issue of race, and the archaeological investigation of culture change from the Old Stone Age to the rise of early civilizations in the Americas, Eurasia and Africa. There are four lab sections for ANTH 101. In addition to the lecture/discussion classes,students must select and sign up for one lab section. Limited enrollment: 18 students per lab section.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Scientific Investigation (SI)
Counts toward: Environmental Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Davis,R.
(Fall 2012)

ANTH B102 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

An introduction to the methods and theories of cultural anthropology in order to understand and explain cultural similarities and differences among contemporary societies.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; International Studies Major; International Studies Minor
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Kilbride,P.
(Spring 2013)

This course examines the relationship of gender to both the nation and the diaspora, within a context of globalization. We will study the co-constitutive relationship of gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and class in national and transnational contexts. Although focused primarily on Filipino American/Philippine cultural production, we examine multiple geopolitical sites. Counts toward the Gender and Sexuality Studies Concentration.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ANTH B312 Anthropology of Reproduction

An examination of social and cultural constructions of reproduction, and how power in everyday life shapes reproductive behavior and its meaning in Western and non-Western cultures. The influence of competing interests within households, communities, states, and institutions on reproduction is considered. Prerequisite: at least one 200-level ethnographic area course or permission of instructor.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Counts toward: Child and Family Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ANTH B316 Gender in South Asia

Examines gender as a culturally and historically constructed category in the modern South Asian context, focusing on the ways in which everyday experiences of and practices relating to gender are informed by media, performance, and political events. Prerequisite: One 200-level course including material on a non-Western society and permission of the instructor.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ANTH B322 Anthropology of the Body

This course examines a diversity of meanings and interpretations of the body in anthropology. It explores anthropological theories and methods of studying the body and social difference via a series of topics including the construction of the body in medicine, identity, race, gender, sexuality and as explored through cross-cultural comparison. Prerequisite: ANTH B102 and preferably a 200 level cultural anthropology course.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

We investigate representations of women in different media in ancient Greece and Rome, examining the cultural stereotypes of women and the gender roles that they reinforce. We also study the daily life of women in the ancient world, the objects that they were associated with in life and death and their occupations.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI); Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): CSTS-B234; HART-B234
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Lindenlauf,A.
(Fall 2012)

ARCH B303 Classical Bodies

An examination of the conceptions of the human body evidenced in Greek and Roman art and literature, with emphasis on issues that have persisted in the Western tradition. Topics include the fashioning of concepts of male and female standards of beauty and their implications; conventions of visual representation; the nude; clothing and its symbolism; the athletic ideal; physiognomy; medical theory and practice; the visible expression of character and emotions; and the formulation of the “classical ideal” in antiquity and later times.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): COML-B313; HART-B305
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

BIOL B214 The Historical Roots of Women in Genetics and Embryology

This course provides a general history of genetics and embryology from the late 19th to the mid-20th century with a focus on the role that women scientists and technicians played in the development of these sub-disciplines. We will look at the lives of well known and lesser-known individuals, asking how factors such as their educational experiences and mentor relationships influenced the roles these women played in the scientific enterprise. We will also examine specific scientific contributions in historical context, requiring a review of core concepts in genetics and developmental biology. One facet of the course will be to look at the Bryn Mawr Biology Department from the founding of the College into the mid-20th century.
Requirement(s): Division II: Natural Science
Approach: Inquiry into the Past (IP); Scientific Investigation (SI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): HIST-B214
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Davis,G.
(Fall 2012)

CITY B205 Social Inequality

Introduction to the major sociological theories of gender, racial-ethnic, and class inequality with emphasis on the relationships among these forms of stratification in the contemporary United States, including the role of the upper class(es), inequality between and within families, in the work place, and in the educational system. (Cross-listed with CITY 205).
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): SOCL-B205
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

Explores the historical role technology has played in the production of gender; the historical role gender has played in the evolution of various technologies; how the co-construction of gender and technology has been represented in a range of on-line, filmic, fictional, and critical media; and what all of the above suggest for the technological engagement of everyone in today’s world.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B257
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

COML B220 Writing the Self in the Middle Ages

What leads people to write about their lives? Do men and women present themselves differently? Do they think different issues are important? How do they claim authority for their thoughts and experiences? We shall address these questions, reading a wide range of autobiography from the Medieval period in the West, with a particular emphasis on women’s writing and on feminist critiques of autobiographical practice.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): CSTS-B220
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Conybeare,C.
(Fall 2012)

COML B237 The Dictator Novel in the Americas

This course examines representations of dictatorship in Latin American and Latina/o novels. We will explore the relationship between narrative form and absolute power by analyzing the literary techniques writers use to contest authoritarianism. We will compare dictator novels from the United States, the Caribbean, Central America, and the Southern Cone. Prerequisite: only for students wishing to take the course for major/minor credit in SPAN is SPAN B200/B202.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B237; SPAN-B237
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

COML B245 Interdisciplinary Approaches to German Literature and Culture

This study of selected women authors from the French Middle Ages, Renaissance and Classical periods—among them, Marie de France, the trobairitz, Christine de Pisan, Louise Labé, Marguerite de Navarre, and Madame de Lafayette—examines the way in which they appropriate and transform the male writing tradition and define themselves as self-conscious artists within or outside it. Particular attention will be paid to identifying recurring concerns and structures in their works, and to assessing their importance to female writing: among them, the poetics of silence, reproduction as a metaphor for artistic creation, and sociopolitical engagement.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): FREN-B302
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Armstrong,G.
(Spring 2013)

COML B313 Classical Bodies

An examination of the conceptions of the human body evidenced in Greek and Roman art and literature, with emphasis on issues that have persisted in the Western tradition. Topics include the fashioning of concepts of male and female standards of beauty and their implications; conventions of visual representation; the nude; clothing and its symbolism; the athletic ideal; physiognomy; medical theory and practice; the visible expression of character and emotions; and the formulation of the “classical ideal” in antiquity and later times.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): ARCH-B303; HART-B305
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

COML B314 Troilus and Criseyde

Examines Chaucer’s magisterial Troilus and Criseyde, his epic romance of love, loss, and betrayal. We will supplement sustained analysis of the poem with primary readings on free will and courtly love as well as theoretical readings on gender and sexuality and translation. We will also read Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato, Robert Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid and Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida.
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B314
Units: 1.0

COML B322 Queens, Nuns, and Other Deviants in the Early Modern Iberian World

The course examines literary, historical, and legal texts from the early modern Iberian world (Spain, Mexico, Peru) through the lens of gender studies. The course is divided around three topics: royal bodies (women in power), cloistered bodies (women in the convent), and delinquent bodies (figures who defy legal and gender normativity). Course is taught in English and is open to all juniors or seniors who have taken at least one 200-level course in a literature department.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Crosslisting(s): SPAN-B322
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

COML B340 Topics in Baroque Art

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Current topic description: The course considers costume and fashion from the perspective of visual and cultural studies, combined with a historical acknowledgment of consumerism. Representations of costume in Europe and Latin America from the fifteenth century forward to the present day.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): HART-B340
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):McKim-Smith,G.
(Fall 2012)

COML B345 Topics in Narrative Theory

Narrative theory through the lens of a specific genre, period or style of writing. Recent topics include Victorian Novels and Ethnic Novels. Current topic description: This course traces the development of the U.S. ethnic novel. We will examine novels by Native Americans, Chicana/os, and African Americans, focusing on key formal innovations in their respective traditions. In addition, we will become versed in key concepts developed by narrative theorists to understand the genre of the novel.
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B345
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Harford Vargas,J.
(Spring 2013)

COML B365 Erotica: Love and Art in Plato and Shakespeare

The course explores the relationship between love and art, “eros” and “poesis,” through in-depth study of Plato’s Phaedus and Symposium, Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Antony and Cleopatra, and essays by modern commentators (including David Halperin, Anne Carson, Martha Nussbaum, Marjorie Garber, and Stanley Cavell). We will also read Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Romeo and Juliet.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B365; PHIL-B365; POLS-B365
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Hedley,J., Salkever,S.
(Spring 2013)

CSTS B175 Feminism in Classics

This course will illustrate the ways in which feminism has had an impact on classics, as well as the ways in which feminists think with classical texts. It will have four thematic divisions: feminism and the classical canon; feminism, women, and rethinking classical history; feminist readings of classical texts; and feminists and the classics - e.g. Cixous’ Medusa and Butler’s Antigone.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

CSTS B220 Writing the Self in the Middle Ages

What leads people to write about their lives? Do men and women present themselves differently? Do they think different issues are important? How do they claim authority for their thoughts and experiences? We shall address these questions, reading a wide range of autobiography from the Medieval period in the West, with a particular emphasis on women’s writing and on feminist critiques of autobiographical practice.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): COML-B220
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Conybeare,C.
(Fall 2012)

CSTS B234 Picturing Women in Classical Antiquity

We investigate representations of women in different media in ancient Greece and Rome, examining the cultural stereotypes of women and the gender roles that they reinforce. We also study the daily life of women in the ancient world, the objects that they were associated with in life and death and their occupations.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI); Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): ARCH-B234; HART-B234
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Lindenlauf,A.
(Fall 2012)

EDUC B280 Gender, Sex and Education: Intersections and Conflict

This course explores the intersections and conflict between gender and education through focus on science/mathematics education and related academic domains. It investigates how gender complicates disciplinary knowledge (and vice-versa), the (de)constructing and reinforcing of genders (via science and schooling), and ways gender troubles negotiation of disciplines. Implications for teaching, society, and social justice, as well as relationships among different cultural categories, will be explored.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

EDUC B290 Learning in Institutional Spaces: Education in Dialogue

This course considers how two “walled communities,” the institutions of schools and prisons, operate as sites of learning. Beginning with an examination of the origins of educational and penitential institutions, we examine how these institutions both constrain and propel learning, and how human beings challenge and change their soundings.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Praxis Program
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Cohen,J.
(Fall 2012)

ENGL B193 Critical Feminist Studies

Combines the study of specific literary texts with larger questions about feminist forms of theorizing: three fictional texts will be supplemented by a wide range of essays. Students will review current scholarship, identify their own stake in the conversation, and define a critical question they want to pursue at length.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B210 Renaissance Literature: Performances of Gender

Readings chosen to highlight the construction and performance of gender identity during the period from 1550 to 1650 and the ways in which the gender anxieties of 16th- and 17th-century men and women differ from, yet speak to, our own. Texts will include plays, poems, prose fiction, diaries, and polemical writing of the period.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Hedley,J.
(Spring 2013)

ENGL B217 Narratives of Latinidad

This course explores how Latina/o writers fashion bicultural and transnational identities and narrate the intertwined histories of the U.S. and Latin America. We will focus on topics of shared concern among Latino groups such as imperialism and annexation, the affective experience of migration, race and gender stereotypes, the politics of Spanglish, and struggles for social justice. By analyzing novels, poetry, performance art, testimonial narratives, films, and essays, we will unpack the complexity of Latinadad in the Americas.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Africana Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Crosslisting(s): SPAN-B217
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Harford Vargas,J.
(Fall 2012)

ENGL B228 Silence: The Rhetorics of Class, Gender, Culture, Religion

This course will consider silence as a rhetorical art and political act, an imaginative space and expressive power that can serve many functions, including that of opening new possibilities among us. We will share our own experiences of silence, re-thinking them through the lenses of how it is explained in philosophy, enacted in classrooms and performed by various genders, cultures, and religions.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Praxis Program
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Dalke,A.
(Fall 2012)

ENGL B235 Reading Popular Culture: Freaks

This course traces the iconic figure of the “freak” in American culture, from 19th c. sideshows to the present. Featuring literature and films that explore “extraordinary Others”, we will flesh out the ways in which our current understandings of gender, sexuality, normalcy, and race are constituted through images of “abnormality.”
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Africana Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B237 The Dictator Novel in the Americas

This course examines representations of dictatorship in Latin American and Latina/o novels. We will explore the relationship between narrative form and absolute power by analyzing the literary techniques writers use to contest authoritarianism. We will compare dictator novels from the United States, the Caribbean, Central America, and the Southern Cone. Prerequisite: only for students wishing to take the course for major/minor credit in SPAN is SPAN B200/B202.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Crosslisting(s): COML-B237; SPAN-B237
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B254 American Literature 1750-1900

This course explores the subject, subjection, and subjectivity of women and female sexualities in U.S. literatures between the signing of the Constitution and the ratification of the 19th Amendment. While the representation of women in fiction grew and the number of female authors soared, the culture found itself at pains to define the appropriate moments for female speech and silence, action and passivity. We will engage a variety of pre-suffrage literatures that place women at the nexus of national narratives of slavery and freedom, foreignness and domesticity, wealth and power, masculinity and citizenship, and sex and race “purity.”
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B257 Gender and Technology

Explores the historical role technology has played in the production of gender; the historical role gender has played in the evolution of various technologies; how the co-construction of gender and technology has been represented in a range of on-line, filmic, fictional, and critical media; and what all of the above suggest for the technological engagement of everyone in today’s world.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Film Studies
Crosslisting(s): CMSC-B257
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B260 Interdisciplinary Approaches to German Literature and Culture

All of Morrison’s primary imaginative texts, in publication order, as well as essays by Morrison, with a series of critical lenses that explore several vantages for reading a conjured narration.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Africana Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Beard,L.
(Spring 2013)

ENGL B269 Vile Bodies in Medieval Literature

The Middle Ages imagined the physical body as the site of moral triumph and failure and as the canvas to expose social ills. The course examines medical tracts, saint’s lives, poetry, theological texts, and representations of the Passion. Discussion topics range from plague and mercantilism to the legal and religious depiction of torture. Texts by Boccaccio, Chaucer, Dante, and Kempe will be supplemented with contemporary readings on trauma theory and embodiment.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B270 American Girl: Childhood in U.S. Literatures, 1690-1935

This course will focus on the “American Girl” as a particularly contested model for the nascent American. Through examination of religious tracts, slave and captivity narratives, literatures for children and adult literatures about childhood, we will analyze U. S. investments in girlhood as a site for national self-fashioning.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B280 Video Practices: From Analog to Digital

This course explores the history and theory of video art from the late 1960’s to the present. The units include: aesthetics; activisim; access; performance; and institutional critique. We will reflect on early video’s “utopian moment” and its manifestation in the current new media revolution. Feminist, people of color and queer productions will constitute the majority of our corpus. Prerequisite: ENGL/HART B205 Intro to Film or consent of the instructor.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Film Studies
Crosslisting(s): HART-B280
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

Introduces students to the 18th-century origins of Gothic literature and its development across genres, media and time. Exploring the formal contours and cultural contexts of the enduring imaginative mode in literature, film, art, and architecture, the course will also investigate the Gothic’s connection to the radical and conservative cultural agendas.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Fall 2012)

ENGL B313 Ecological Imaginings

Re-thinking the evolving nature of representation, with a focus on language as a link between natural and cultural ecosystems. We will observe the world; read classical and cutting edge ecolinguistic, ecoliterary, ecofeminist, and ecocritical theory, along with a wide range of exploratory, speculative, and imaginative essays and stories; and seek a variety of ways of expressing our own ecological interests.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Environmental Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Praxis Program
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Dalke,A.
(Fall 2012)

ENGL B314 Troilus and Criseyde

Examines Chaucer’s magisterial Troilus and Criseyde, his epic romance of love, loss, and betrayal. We will supplement sustained analysis of the poem with primary readings on free will and courtly love as well as theoretical readings on gender and sexuality and translation. We will also read Boccaccio’s Il Filostrato, Robert Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid and Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida.
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): COML-B314
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B333 Lesbian Immortal

Lesbian literature has repeatedly figured itself in alliance with tropes of immortality and eternity. Using recent queer theory on temporality, and 19th and 20th century primary texts, we will explore topics such as: fame and noteriety; feminism and mythology; epistemes, erotics and sexual seasonality; the death drive and the uncanny; fin de siecle manias for mummies and seances.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

This course focuses on fiction, poetry and drama by Black women (African and Caribbean American) published since 2000. Attendant to the diversity of aesthetic and thematic approaches in this body of literature, we will explore exploding notions of racial identity and allegiance, as well as challenges to the boundaries of genre. Prerequisites: one African or African-American literature course at the 200-level or permission of the instructor.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Africana Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B345 Topics in Narrative Theory

Narrative theory through the lens of a specific genre, period or style of writing. Recent topics include Victorian Novels and Ethnic Novels. Current topic description: This course traces the development of the U.S. ethnic novel. We will examine novels by Native Americans, Chicana/os, and African Americans, focusing on key formal innovations in their respective traditions. In addition, we will become versed in key concepts developed by narrative theorists to understand the genre of the novel.
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Crosslisting(s): COML-B345
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Harford Vargas,J.
(Spring 2013)

Looking at fiction and film from the U.S. and abroad through the lenses of sexuality studies and queer theory, we will explore the ways that both current and past configurations of sexual, racial, and cultural personhood have inflected, infringed upon, and opened up spaces of local/global citizenship and belonging. Prerequisites: An introductory course in film, or GNST B290, or ENGL B250.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Film Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B365 Erotica: Love and Art in Plato and Shakespeare

The course explores the relationship between love and art, “eros” and “poesis,” through in-depth study of Plato’s Phaedus and Symposium, Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Antony and Cleopatra, and essays by modern commentators (including David Halperin, Anne Carson, Martha Nussbaum, Marjorie Garber, and Stanley Cavell). We will also read Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Romeo and Juliet.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): COML-B365; PHIL-B365; POLS-B365
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Hedley,J., Salkever,S.
(Spring 2013)

ENGL B367 Asian American Film Video and New Media

The course explores the role of pleasure in the production, reception, and performance of Asian American identities in film, video, and the internet, taking as its focus the sexual representation of Asian Americans in works produced by Asian American artists from 1915 to present. In several units of the course, we will study graphic sexual representations, including pornographic images and sex acts some may find objectionable. Students should be prepared to engage analytically with all class material. To maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect and solidarity among the participants in the class, no auditors will be allowed.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Film Studies
Crosslisting(s): HART-B367
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B369 Women Poets: Gwendolyn Brooks, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath

In this seminar we will be playing three poets off against each other, all of whom came of age during the 1950s. We will plot each poet’s career in relation to the public and personal crises that shaped it, giving particular attention to how each poet constructed “poethood” for herself.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Africana Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ENGL B372 Composing a Self: American Women’s Life Writing

Beginning with Rowlandson’s 1682 captivity narrative and concluding with Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, we examine how American women have constructed themselves in print. Gender, ethnicity, spirituality and sexuality inform public narratives; while letters and diaries serve as a counterweight, revealing private selves and prompting exploration of authority, authorship, history, citizenship and identity. Course includes personal life-writing and archival research in the College’s Special Collections.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

Using literary texts, historical documents and letters as a mirror of the social classes that they address, this interdisciplinary course studies the principal preoccupations of secular and religious women and men in France from the Carolingian period through 1500. Selected works from epic, lai, roman courtois, fabliau, theater, letters, and contemporary biography are read in modern French translation.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI); Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

This study of selected women authors from the French Middle Ages, Renaissance and Classical periods—among them, Marie de France, the trobairitz, Christine de Pisan, Louise Labé, Marguerite de Navarre, and Madame de Lafayette—examines the way in which they appropriate and transform the male writing tradition and define themselves as self-conscious artists within or outside it. Particular attention will be paid to identifying recurring concerns and structures in their works, and to assessing their importance to female writing: among them, the poetics of silence, reproduction as a metaphor for artistic creation, and sociopolitical engagement.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): COML-B302
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Armstrong,G.
(Spring 2013)

GERM B245 Interdisciplinary Approaches to German Literature and Culture

This course uses the theme of “vision” to explore the context and consequences of mass incarceration, daily experiences inside correctional institutions and social movements formed and inspired by incarcerated individuals. Students will explore and apply course materials in campus-based classes and in classes with incarcerated women inside a correctional facility.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Praxis Program
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Toews,B.
(Fall 2012)

GNST B290 Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality

This course offers a rigorous grounding for students interested in questions of gender and sexuality. Bringing together intellectual resources from multiple disciplines, it also explores what it means to think across and between disciplinary boundaries. Team-taught by Bryn Mawr and Haverford professors from different disciplines, this course is offered yearly on alternate campuses.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

GREK B201 Plato and Thucydides

This course is designed to introduce the student to two of the greatest prose authors of ancient Greece, the philosopher, Plato, and the historian, Thucydides. These two writers set the terms in the disciplines of philosophy and history for millennia, and philosophers and historians today continue to grapple with their ideas and influence. The brilliant and controversial statesman Alcibiades provides a link between the two texts in this course, and we examine the ways in which both authors handle the figure of Alcibiades as a point of entry into the comparison of the varying styles and modes of thought of these two great writers.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Edmonds,R.
(Fall 2012)

HART B107 Critical Approaches to Visual Representation: Self and Other in the Arts of France

A study of artists’ self-representations in the context of the philosophy and psychology of their time, with particular attention to issues of political patronage, gender and class, power and desire.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI); Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Levine,S.
(Spring 2013)

HART B108 Critical Approaches to Visual Representation: Women, Feminism, and History of Art

An investigation of the history of art since the Renaissance organized around the practice of women artists, the representation of women in art, and the visual economy of the gaze.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI); Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0

HART B234 Picturing Women in Classical Antiquity

We investigate representations of women in different media in ancient Greece and Rome, examining the cultural stereotypes of women and the gender roles that they reinforce. We also study the daily life of women in the ancient world, the objects that they were associated with in life and death and their occupations.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI); Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): ARCH-B234; CSTS-B234
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Lindenlauf,A.
(Fall 2012)

HART B280 Video Practices: Analog to Digital

This course explores the history and theory of video art from the late 1960’s to the present. The units include: aesthetics; activisim; access; performance; and institutional critique. We will reflect on early video’s “utopian moment” and its manifestation in the current new media revolution. Feminist, people of color and queer productions will constitute the majority of our corpus. Prerequisite: ENGL/HART B205 Intro to Film or consent of the instructor.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Film Studies
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B280
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

HART B305 Classical Bodies

An examination of the conceptions of the human body evidenced in Greek and Roman art and literature, with emphasis on issues that have persisted in the Western tradition. Topics include the fashioning of concepts of male and female standards of beauty and their implications; conventions of visual representation; the nude; clothing and its symbolism; the athletic ideal; physiognomy; medical theory and practice; the visible expression of character and emotions; and the formulation of the “classical ideal” in antiquity and later times.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): ARCH-B303; COML-B313
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

This is a topics course. Course content varies. Current topic description: The course considers costume and fashion from the perspective of visual and cultural studies, combined with a historical acknowledgment of consumerism. Representations of costume in Europe and Latin America from the fifteenth century forward to the present day.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): COML-B340
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):McKim-Smith,G.
(Fall 2012)

The course explores the role of pleasure in the production, reception, and performance of Asian American identities in film, video, and the internet, taking as its focus the sexual representation of Asian Americans in works produced by Asian American artists from 1915 to present. In several units of the course, we will study graphic sexual representations, including pornographic images and sex acts some may find objectionable. Students should be prepared to engage analytically with all class material. To maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect and solidarity among the participants in the class, no auditors will be allowed.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Film Studies
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B367
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

HIST B214 The Historical Roots of Women in Genetics and Embryology

This course provides a general history of genetics and embryology from the late 19th to the mid-20th century with a focus on the role that women scientists and technicians played in the development of these sub-disciplines. We will look at the lives of well known and lesser-known individuals, asking how factors such as their educational experiences and mentor relationships influenced the roles these women played in the scientific enterprise.
Requirement(s): Division II: Natural Science
Approach: Inquiry into the Past (IP); Scientific Investigation (SI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): BIOL-B214
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Davis,G.
(Fall 2012)

HIST B284 Movies and America

Movies are one of the most important means by which Americans come to know – or think they know—their own history. This class examines the complex cultural relationship between film and American historical self fashioning.
Requirement(s): Division I or Division III
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI); Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Film Studies
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Ullman,S.
(Fall 2012)

HIST B292 Women in Britain since 1750

Focusing on contemporary and historical narratives, this course explores the ongoing production, circulation and refraction of discourses on gender and nation as well as race, empire and modernity since the mid-18th century. Texts will incorporate visual material as well as literary evidence and culture and consider the crystallization of the discipline of history itself.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI); Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

HIST B325 Topics in Social History

This a topics course that explores various themes in American social history. Course content varies. Current topic description: This course will examine the history of women’s education in the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on the context of the history of women’s higher education in the US and globally.
Requirement(s): Division I or Division III
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): CITY-B325
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Ullman,S., Redmond,J.
(Spring 2013)

ITAL B235 The Italian Women’s Movement

Emphasis will be put on Italian women writers and film directors, who are often left out of syllabi adhering to traditional canons. Particular attention will be paid to: a) women writers who have found their voices (through writing) as a means of psychological survival in a patriarchal world; b) women engaged in the women’s movement of the 70’s and who continue to look at, and rewrite, women’s stories of empowerment and solidarity; c) “divaism”, fame, via beauty and sex with a particular emphasis on the ‘60s (i.e. Gina Lollobrigida, Sofia Loren, Claudia Cardinale). Counts toward the Gender and Sexuality Studies Concentration.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ITAL B299 Grief, Sexuality, Identity: Emerging Adulthood

Adolescence is an important time of personality development as a result of changes in the self-concept and the formation of a new moral system of values. Emphasis will be placed on issues confronting the role of the family and peer relationships, prostitution, drugs, youth criminality/gangsters/violence, cultural diversity, pregnancy, gender identity, mental/moral/religious development, emotional growth, alcoholism, homosexuality, sexual behavior. Prerequisite: ITAL B102 or ITAL B105.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

ITAL B304 Il Rinascimento in Italia e oltre

Students will become familiar with the growing importance of women during the Renaissance, as women expanded their sphere of activity in literature (as authors of epics, lyrics, treatises, and letters), in court (especially in Ferrara), and in society, where for the first time women formed groups and their own discourse. What happens when women become the subject of study? What is learned about women and the nation? What is learned about gender and how disciplinary knowledge itself is changed through the centuries?
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Ricci,R.
(Spring 2013)

PHIL B221 Ethics

An introduction to ethics by way of an examination of moral theories and a discussion of important ancient, modern, and contemporary texts which established theories such as virtue ethics, deontology, utilitarianism, relativism, emotivism, care ethics. This course considers questions concerning freedom, responsibility, and obligation. How should we live our lives and interact with others? How should we think about ethics in a global context? Is ethics independent of culture? A variety of practical issues such as reproductive rights, euthanasia, animal rights and the environment will be considered.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC); Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Fall 2012)

PHIL B225 Global Ethical Issues

The need for a critical analysis of what justice is and requires has become urgent in a context of increasing globalization, the emergence of new forms of conflict and war, high rates of poverty within and across borders and the prospect of environmental devastation. This course examines prevailing theories and issues of justice as well as approaches and challenges by non-western, post-colonial, feminist, race, class, and disability theorists.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC); Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; International Studies Major; International Studies Minor
Crosslisting(s): POLS-B225
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

PHIL B252 Feminist Theory

Beliefs that gender discrimination has been eliminated and women have achieved equality have become commonplace. We challenge these assumptions examining the concepts of patriarchy, sexism, and oppression. Exploring concepts central to feminist theory, we attend to the history of feminist theory and contemporary accounts of women’s place and status in different societies, varied experiences, and the impact of the phenomenon of globalization. We then explore the relevance of gender to philosophical questions about identity and agency with respect to moral, social and political theory. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of instructor.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC); Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): POLS-B253
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Koggel,C.
(Spring 2013)

PHIL B344 Development Ethics

This course explores the meaning of and moral issues raised by development. In what direction and by what means should a society “develop”? What role, if any, does the globalization of markets and capitalism play in processes of development and in systems of discrimination on the basis of factors such as race and gender? Answers to these sorts of questions will be explored through an examination of some of the most prominent theorists and recent literature. Prerequisites: a philosophy, political theory or economics course or permission of the instructor.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; International Studies Major; International Studies Minor
Crosslisting(s): POLS-B344
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Koggel,C.
(Spring 2013)

PHIL B365 Erotica: Love and Art in Plato and Shakespeare

The course explores the relationship between love and art, “eros” and “poesis,” through in-depth study of Plato’s Phaedus and Symposium, Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Antony and Cleopatra, and essays by modern commentators (including David Halperin, Anne Carson, Martha Nussbaum, Marjorie Garber, and Stanley Cavell). We will also read Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Romeo and Juliet.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B365; COML-B365; POLS-B365
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Hedley,J., Salkever,S.
(Spring 2013)

POLS B225 Global Ethical Issues

The need for a critical analysis of what justice is and requires has become urgent in a context of increasing globalization, conflict and war, poverty and environmental devastation. This course examines prevailing theories and issues of justice as well as approaches by non-western, post-colonial, feminist, race, class, and disability theorists. Counts toward International Studies Minor and Gender and Sexuality concentration.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; International Studies Major; International Studies Minor
Crosslisting(s): PHIL-B225
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

POLS B253 Feminist Theory

Beliefs that gender discrimination has been eliminated and women have achieved equality have become commonplace. We challenge these assumptions examining the concepts of patriarchy, sexism, and oppression. Exploring concepts central to feminist theory, we attend to the history of feminist theory and contemporary accounts of women’s place and status in different societies, varied experiences, and the impact of the phenomenon of globalization. We then explore the relevance of gender to philosophical questions about identity and agency with respect to moral, social and political theory. Prerequisite: one course in philosophy or permission of instructor.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): PHIL-B252
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Koggel,C.
(Spring 2013)

POLS B262 Who Believes What and Why: the Sociology of Public Opinion

This course explores public opinion: what it is, how it is measured, how it is shaped, and how it changes over time. Specific attention is given to the role of elites, the mass media, and religion in shaping public opinion. Examples include racial/ethnic civil rights, abortion, gay/lesbian/transgendered sexuality, and inequalities.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): SOCL-B262
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

POLS B282 The Exotic Other: Gender and Sexuality in the Middle East

This course is concerned with the meanings of gender and sexuality in the Middle East, with particular attention to the construction of tradition, its performance, reinscription, and transformation, and to Western interpretations and interactions. Prerequisite: one course in social science or humanities. Previous gender or Middle East course is a plus.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC); Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Middle East Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

POLS B344 Development Ethics

This course explores the meaning of and moral issues raised by development. In what direction and by what means should a society “develop”? What role, if any, does the globalization of markets and capitalism play in processes of development and in systems of discrimination on the basis of factors such as race and gender? Answers to these sorts of questions will be explored through an examination of some of the most prominent theorists and recent literature. Prerequisites: a philosophy, political theory or economics course or permission of the instructor.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; International Studies Major; International Studies Minor
Crosslisting(s): PHIL-B344
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Koggel,C.
(Spring 2013)

POLS B365 Erotica: Love and Art in Plato and Shakespeare

The course explores the relationship between love and art, “eros” and “poesis,” through in-depth study of Plato’s Phaedus and Symposium, Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Antony and Cleopatra, and essays by modern commentators (including David Halperin, Anne Carson, Martha Nussbaum, Marjorie Garber, and Stanley Cavell). We will also read Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Romeo and Juliet.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B365; COML-B365; PHIL-B365
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Hedley,J., Salkever,S.
(Spring 2013)

POLS B375 Women, Work, and Family

As the number of women participating in the paid workforce who are also mothers exceeds 50 percent, it becomes increasingly important to study the issues raised by these dual roles. This seminar will examine the experiences of working and nonworking mothers in the United States, the roles of fathers, the impact of working mothers on children, and the policy implications of women, work, and family.
Counts toward: Child and Family Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): SOCL-B375
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Golden,M.
(Fall 2012)

POLS B393 U.S. Welfare Politics: Theory and Practice

Major theoretical perspectives concerning the welfare state with a focus on social policy politics, including recent welfare reforms and how in an era of globalization there has been a turn to a more restrictive system of social provision. Special attention is paid to the ways class, race, and gender are involved in making of social welfare policy and the role of social welfare policy in reinforcing class, race, and gender inequities. Prerequisite: POLS B121 or SOCL B102.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): SOCL-B393
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Schram,S.
(Spring 2013)

PSYC B340 Women’s Mental Health

This course will provide an overview of current research and theory related to women’s mental health. We will discuss psychological phenomena and disorders that are particularly salient to and prevalent among women, why these phenomena/disorders affect women disproportionately over men, and how they may impact women’s psychological and physical well-being. Psychological disorders covered will include: depression, eating disorders, dissociative identity disorder, borderline personality disorder, and chronic pain disorders. Other topics discussed will include work-family conflict for working mothers, the role of sociocultural influences on women’s mental health, and mental health issues particular to women of color and to lesbian women. Prerequisite: PSYC B209 or PSYC B351.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Counts toward: Child and Family Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

SOCL B102 Society, Culture, and the Individual

Analysis of the basic sociological methods, perspectives, and concepts used in the study of society, with emphasis on culture, social structure, personality, their component parts, and their interrelationship in both traditional and industrial societies. The sources of social tension, order, and change are addressed through study of socialization and personality development, inequality, power, and modernization.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; International Studies Major
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Karen,D.
(Fall 2012)

SOCL B205 Social Inequality

Introduction to the major sociological theories of gender, racial-ethnic, and class inequality with emphasis on the relationships among these forms of stratification in the contemporary United States, including the role of the upper class(es), inequality between and within families, in the work place, and in the educational system. (Cross-listed with CITY 205).
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): CITY-B205
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

SOCL B217 The Family in Social Context

A consideration of the family as a social institution in the United States, looking at how societal and cultural characteristics and dynamics influence families; how the family reinforces or changes the society in which it is located; and how the family operates as a social organization. Included is an analysis of family roles and social interaction within the family. Major problems related to contemporary families are addressed, such as domestic violence and divorce. Cross-cultural and subcultural variations in the family are considered.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward: Africana Studies; Child and Family Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0

SOCL B225 Women in Society

A study of the contemporary experiences of women of color in the Global South. The household, workplace, community, and the nation-state, and the positions of women in the private and public spheres are compared cross-culturally. Topics include feminism, identity and self-esteem; globalization and transnational social movements and tensions and transitions encountered as nations embark upon development.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward: Africana Studies; Child and Family Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Osirim,M.
(Fall 2012)

SOCL B257 Marginals and Outsiders: The Sociology of Deviance

An examination of unconventional and criminal behavior from the standpoint of different theoretical perspectives on deviance (e.g., social disorganization, symbolic interaction, structural functionalism, Marxism) with particular emphasis on the labeling and social construction perspectives; and the role of conflicts and social movements in changing the normative boundaries of society. Topics will include alcoholism, drug addiction, homicide, homosexuality, mental illness, prostitution, robbery, and white-collar crime.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

SOCL B262 Who Believes What and Why: The Sociology of Public Opinion

This course explores public opinion: what it is, how it is measured, how it is shaped, and how it changes over time. Specific attention is given to the role of elites, the mass media, and religion in shaping public opinion. Examples include racial/ethnic civil rights, abortion, gay/lesbian/transgendered sexuality, and inequalities.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Approach: Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC); Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): POLS-B262
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

SOCL B350 Movements for Social Justice

Throughout human history, powerless groups of people have organized social movements to improve their lives and their societies. Powerful groups and institutions have resisted these efforts in order to maintain their own privilege. Some periods of history have been more likely than others to spawn protest movements. What factors seem most likely to lead to social movements? What determines their success/failure? We will examine 20th-century social movements in the United States to answer these questions. Includes a film series. Prerequisite: At least one prior social science course or permission of the instructor.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Peace and Conflict Studies
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Karen,D.
(Spring 2013)

SOCL B375 Women, Work and Family

As the number of women participating in the paid workforce who are also mothers exceeds 50 percent, it becomes increasingly important to study the issues raised by these dual roles. This seminar will examine the experiences of working and nonworking mothers in the United States, the roles of fathers, the impact of working mothers on children, and the policy implications of women, work, and family.
Requirement(s): Division I: Social Science
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies
Crosslisting(s): POLS-B375
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Golden,M.
(Fall 2012)

SPAN B217 Narratives of Latinidad

This course explores how Latina/o writers fashion bicultural and transnational identities and narrate the intertwined histories of the U.S. and Latin America. We will focus on topics of shared concern among Latino groups such as imperialism and annexation, the affective experience of migration, race and gender stereotypes, the politics of Spanglish, and struggles for social justice. By analyzing novels, poetry, performance art, testimonial narratives, films, and essays, we will unpack the complexity of Latinadad in the Americas.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Africana Studies; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B217
Units: 1.0
Instructor(s):Harford Vargas,J.
(Fall 2012)

SPAN B223 Género y modernidad en la narrativa del siglo XIX

A reading of 19th-century Spanish narrative by both men and women writers, to assess how they come together in configuring new ideas of female identity and its social domains, as the country is facing new challenges in its quest for modernity.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Inquiry into the Past (IP)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

SPAN B237 The Dictator Novel in the Americas

This course examines representations of dictatorship in Latin American and Latina/o novels. We will explore the relationship between narrative form and absolute power by analyzing the literary techniques writers use to contest authoritarianism. We will compare dictator novels from the United States, the Caribbean, Central America, and the Southern Cone. Prerequisite: only for students wishing to take the course for major/minor credit in SPAN is SPAN B200/B202.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Approach: Critical Interpretation (CI)
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Crosslisting(s): ENGL-B237; COML-B237
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

A study of the depiction of women in the fiction, drama, and poetry of 16th- and 17th-century Spain. Topics include the construction of gender; the idealization and codification of women’s bodies; the politics of feminine enclosure (convent, home, brothel, palace); and the performance of honor. The first half of the course will deal with representations of women by male authors (Calderón, Cervantes, Lope, Quevedo) and the second will be dedicated to women writers such as Teresa de Ávila, Ana Caro, Juana Inés de la Cruz, and María de Zayas.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)

SPAN B322 Queens, Nuns, and Other Deviants in the Early Modern Iberian World

The course examines literary, historical, and legal texts from the early modern Iberian world (Spain, Mexico, Peru) through the lens of gender studies. The course is divided around three topics: royal bodies (women in power), cloistered bodies (women in the convent), and delinquent bodies (figures who defy legal and gender normativity). Course is taught in English and is open to all juniors or seniors who have taken at least one 200-level course in a literature department. Students seeking Spanish credit must have taken BMC Spanish 202 and at least one other Spanish course beyond 202, or received permission from instructor.
Requirement(s): Division III: Humanities
Counts toward: Gender and Sexuality Studies; Latin Amer/Latino/Iberian Peoples and Cultures
Crosslisting(s): COML-B322
Units: 1.0
(Not Offered 2012-13)